Kitchen Ceramics

Book excerpt: Featured in this handsomely designed, nostalgia-tinged volume are ironstone, the graceful, elegant china of myriad shapes first produced in England in the nineteenth century; redware, the first pottery of Colonial America, which was turned on a wheel and then covered with a clear glaze that made the clay waterproof; spongeware, a colorful descendant of English Staffordshire spatterware that is named for its style of decoration rather than its type of clay; mochaware, extraordinary pieces of earthenware with elaborate colored slip decorations; and yellowware, the down-home pottery that has been a kitchen staple since the 1820s. Today, these once simply utilitarian and serviceable objects are collector's items both for their rarity and for their decorative qualities; best of all, they can still be used in the kitchen or to add a homey touch to any decor.